He forgot to add that we really do try to set aside dinnertime to eat together and recap our days. Other than that, we’re really boring, which is just the way we like it.
Foreign films, some TV shows (24, Friday Night Lights), talk
We amuse ourselves with games like:
Yelling " Get in BED and STAY THERE!" at the kids.
" It’s your turn to let the dog out."
“Where are my car keys?” ( or cell phone cord/wallet/sunglasses/tractor key.)
When those things become stagnant, we like to rev things up by having terse discussions about the amount of pet hair that two animals poof out on a daily basis. (he is against all pet hair. 12 years of this and he still gets bent up about it. I have accepted that if I want the unconditional love of a dog and to be a cat butler, hair is a part of the plan.) I think he is jealous that after all these years the dog still has hair and he doesn’t.
We take dance lessons (we started with ballroom, but we love the latin dances - merengue and salsa and casina rueda - you wow them at dances when you start merengueing to “Sexy Back”). We don’t have kids either, so we joined a social club for the childless-by-choice called No Kidding (chapters all over North America), and go to their events once or twice a month. We’re thinking about getting some kind of regular card game or poker game going with some other couples; it is really fun to socialize with other couples. The occasional Dopefest. It might seem obvious, but we also are known to do tourist-y local stuff that you sort of overlook when you live with it every day. We also live an hour away from the Rocky Mountains, so we have no excuse for not going there much more often.
Cultural criticism.
Cook. We both plan/mastermind, he does sous work and I do the actual cooking (he’s great at thinking stuff up, but horrible at execution - although his knife skills are improving). Usually I have to poke him with a fork or smack him with my spoon to keep him from oversampling. We spent today baking cookies (read: I set the cookies out to cool on the rack, and he ate the whole batch just in time for the next batch to come out.) Most of our cooking time is really just an excuse to eat a lot, have some beer, and grabass around the kitchen.
We take motorcycle rides or car trips a lot. I almost always sit on back when we go together on the bike because the extra weight freaks me out. We usually go to local or regional historic sites - we went to Fort Tejon last week. Sometimes we hit Angeles Crest and grab some pie at Newcomb’s Ranch, or go to various local festivals. Sometimes we even drive many hours for legendary tacos!
Lately we’ve been spending time playing pickup soccer with the neighbor kids and our nephews, followed up by some quality time with the grill. Good times.
This thread might give you some alternative ideas for things to do out of the public eye.
We’re both mostly ‘give out’ at the end of the day. My work day ends at nine pm. Usually we will sit on the patio or by the fire for a bit of convo before supper and bed. ONE day, ONE day our four youngsters will be gone. Then it will be a different story
21, 20, 19 ,18 & 17
So which one are you keeping?
Ha. i figured somebody would catch my bad math. Our 21-year old no longer lives with us.